If someone calls you a basic B, it’s considered a major insult! I’m here to tell you that being a basic B with your health is far from insulting – it’s what most people WISH they could be.
Our bodies are amazing machines! They do incredible things without us having to think or put any effort into the process. Basic things like breathing, blinking, digesting, healing, pumping blood to the entire body, sleeping, and many more functions are self-regulating. Our conscious minds can’t take credit for any of it.
I always tell my students that when it comes to your health, if your basics are good – you’re good. If your basics suck – you suck. The basics are the ultimate foundation for your health. Do your basics very well, again and again, until you are the master of being a BASIC B.
The Basics: Breathe, Walk, Sleep
Breathing is a function that is automatic. Most of us breathe incorrectly. Sure, we are still alive and getting oxygen and carbon dioxide into our systems, but not in an ideal way.
We are meant to breathe through our NOSES. Breathing in through the mouth is not the way we were designed. Crooked teeth, asthma, sleep apnea, and poor posture could all be cured if we learned how to breathe properly, but since we already breathe automatically and continue to live, then screw it: let’s go to the doctor and get some pills.
Walking is considered the easiest of all exercises yet most of us overlook the benefit of going out for a daily walk. Walking outside for just a half hour a day burns calories, boosts your mood, and gets you vitamin D.
Many people think they need to run or go jogging to get the benefits of cardio, but after a few times around the block…it’s tiring. So if running is too hard and walking is too easy, what do we do? Head to the doctor and get some pills.
When we get tired, we sleep. Sleeping regulates our hormones, heals our bodies and brains, and makes us feel rejuvenated. We are always going to get tired and sleep – so why spend time or energy learning about it or trying to improve it? Let’s go to the doctor instead and (you guessed it!) get some pills.
I’ll stop here with these three examples. I consider them to be the foundation of our health. Most people don’t know how to breathe properly, do not go for walks, and have poor sleeping habits. They want to improve their health but miss the basics — and how without these basics, our goals (whatever they are) will suffer.
When it comes to health and fitness, being a basic B is a good thing.
Why is it insulting to call someone a basic B again? Because it’s considered boring. Breathing is boring, walking can be boring, sleeping is probably the definition of boring.
The basics don’t look like the flashy images of fitness and wellness that we are sold.
We are sold an exciting and glamorous image of people with chiseled bodies jumping around happily, swigging a new goji berry drink they saw on social media, while thriving on vacation without one hair out of place.
This is FAKE. These images are meant to make you feel inadequate. They’re meant to urge you to spend your money on some new, fancy, dumb thing that will magically change your health.
I have purchased so many supplements that I could have opened my own pharmacy. I have taken the all or nothing approach to fitness for YEARS because I too thought that these basics were too easy to be powerful.
I have humbled myself at the tender age of 35.
After being a competitive athlete across many intense sports, the sport I am most interested in mastering is the sport of LIFE.
No matter what you want to do with your life, master the basics of your health and you will be able to build yourself up like never before!
